Did Questlove Break The News Of The Occupy Wall Street Raid?

At the order of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City police raided and began forcefully removing Occupy Wall Street protestors and their belongings from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park around one in the morning on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Bloomberg said that health and safety conditions had become intolerable, and that the park–which is a privately owned public space, controlled by Brookfield Office Properties–would be cleaned and reopened.

Interestingly, before the raid took shape, Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson Tweeted “Omg, drivin down south st near #ows. Somethin bout to go down yo, swear I counted 1000 riot gear cops bout to pull sneak attack.” The police action was something of a ‘sneak attack,’ with little warning given to the protestors, some of whom had been camping out for nearly two months. Soon after his first Tweet, Questlove posted that he’d seen “at least 500+ geared up” law enforcement officials “standing in line gettin ready for somethin.”

With 1.7 million followers and hundreds of re-Tweets, it’s entirely possible that the drummer’s message had a far reach. However, as far as ‘predicting’ the event, Questlove again wrote, “i didn’t predict it. i literally drove into it by accident (drove an exit early off FDR and thought someone declared war).” Since, Thompson’s Twitter account has been very active. Roughly 200 people were arrested during the raid, as reported by the New Yotk Times and BBC, among other publications.

More recent developments surrounding Occupy Wall Street include New York Supreme Court Judge Lucy Billings issuing an order to allow protestors to return to Zuccotti Park, where the now-global demonstration began on Sep. 17. As they become available, you can click here for live updates. [Aux]